Ille Dies Primus Leti: Echoes of Dido in the Bellum Civile
Freestone, Kelly
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121567
Description
Title
Ille Dies Primus Leti: Echoes of Dido in the Bellum Civile
Author(s)
Freestone, Kelly
Issue Date
2023-07-21
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Walters, Brian C
Department of Study
Classics
Discipline
Classics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Lucan
Bellum Civile
Dido
allusion
Abstract
Throughout his Belllum Civile Lucan reworks and reverses significant themes from Virgil’s Aeneid to narrate the unfounding of Rome in civil war. As an extended portrayal of furor and the destruction it causes, the tragedy of Dido looms large in the imagination of both poets. Allusions to Virgil’s Dido throughout Book 1 of the Bellum Civile suggest that Lucan imagines the civil war to be both a fulfilment and perpetuation of Dido’s curse. Three key female characters in the epic — Julia, Cornelia, and Cleopatra — refigure different facets of Dido’s character and as such participate in the perpetuation of her curse throughout the civil war. Through such references to and reincarnations of Dido, Lucan presents a bleak view of Rome’s history and future.
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